AI as a research partner

Timothy Gowers on using AI:

🧵 Full thread: https://x.com/wtgowers/status/1984340182351634571

I crossed an interesting threshold yesterday — one I suspect many mathematicians are now crossing. In the middle of trying to prove a result, I found a statement that looked true and would be useful if it were. Instead of proving it myself, I asked GPT-5, and in 20 seconds it produced a proof using a lemma I hadn’t heard of. I’m confident I’d have got there eventually, but it would’ve taken me about an hour. It feels like we’ve entered a brief but wonderful era where our research is greatly sped up by AI — but AI still needs us.

— Timothy Gowers